In vitro diagnostics (IVD) allows labs to assist in the diagnosis of disease based on assays performed on patient fluid samples. IVD includes various types of analytical tests and assays related to patient diagnosis and therapy that can be performed by analysis of a liquid sample taken from a patient's bodily fluids, or abscesses. These assays are typically conducted with automated clinical chemistry analyzers (analyzers) onto which fluid containers, such as tubes or vials containing patient samples, have been loaded. The analyzer extracts a liquid sample from the vial and combines the sample with various reagent fluids (reagents) in special reaction cuvettes or tubes (referred to generally as reaction vessels).
Reagents to be combined with samples are contained in reagent containers, such as reagent wedges. In conventional systems, pick and place devices are used to hold reagent containers and transport the reagent containers between different locations of an analyzer. In some locations, reagent probes are used to aspirate reagents from their respective reagent containers and sense levels (e.g., capacitance level sensing) of reagents remaining in each of their respective reagent containers.
Reagent containers may include reagent container closure devices (e.g., caps) that seal the reagent containers and prevent evaporation of the reagents until they are opened for testing. Some conventional systems require manual opening (e.g., unscrewing cap) of the reagent container closure devices by human operators, thereby increasing operator workflow. Other conventional systems may include films to seal the reagents in the reagent containers. The films, which are punctured by the probes, may result in contamination of reagents along the length of the probes. The contaminated probes must then be cleaned, requiring significant cleaning time (e.g., 1-2 seconds per wash), thereby reducing throughput. Capacitance level sensing errors may also be caused by residual fluid and/or electric charge accumulation on the punctured film.